"SECLUDED" 6X8 PASTEL

Here's another snow scene I've been working on. It's another view of the creek at the Goldthwaite trail...a place I love. It doesn't belong there. It's so quiet, peaceful...secluded.

I really experimented with colors. I exaggerated them quite a bit and unlike "Darkness Falls" boosting these colors worked. Maybe because purple is my favorite color, but I get such a great feeling looking at this painting. I love the trees. The touch of wind blown snow on the bark, the color in the water...The depth of the trees is probably my favorite. It gives you a dimensional feel you don't often get from a painting....I love it! Hope you do too!

"DARKNESS FALLS" 6X8 PASTEL

Here's a pastel I've been working on which was quite challenging. This is from a photo I shot at Plum Island last summer. It was around 8:30pm and there is not a lot of color in the photo. NOT MUCH AT ALL! So I figured I'd bump up the colors a bit and give it a little life and I think I over bumped them. I was so intrigued by the photo because of the tone, the feeling. It's dark, gloomy, but it was an absolutely beautiful evening.

I've been very intimated by this photo for a while. I was going to do this in a 16x20, then 9x12, so I decided to go small. I like the painting...not my best, but I think I captured the time of day and think I nailed the values. I can live with that.

I've only been painting for a couple of years and already I'm sick of naming paintings "sunset," that's why I called it what I did. However it almost sounds like a horror sequel, but it work and reflects my mood. Enjoy

Paintings from Chatham...

In an earlier post I mentioned posting my paintings from my plein air trip to Chatham, Cape Cod back in October, so here they are. I won't be finishing these...I have other plans for the year so I will not have time to go back and touch these up.

Since the end of the summer I concentrated on plein air painting in preparation for my trip to the cape. I definitely feel it helped. I went into the weekend hoping to be successful with my color mixing, identifying shapes and values and really becoming familiar with being able to evaluate a scene under pressure. Throwing away everything you normally study completing a painting and relying more on instinct and raw painting talent.

It is a very challenging process with really pushes you to the limit. Plein air painting alone is difficult...throw in some of the obstacles we came upon and you are really put to the test!

DAY 3 Chatham, CAPE COD - "Untitled" 6x8 on Gesso Board

I actually really like this painting...this was the last location on a wonderful weekend trip. This was another very, very windy location. This was a beautiful area, a gorgeous marsh to paint. We had rising tides, wild coyotes and wind gusts of probably 50mph. I literally had to hold my easel the whole time with my left arm as I painted. This was a very challenging location.

I love the colors in this painting. I feel I captured them well. I love the clouds and the depth of the marsh. I wish I had more time to finish it.



DAY 3 Chatham, CAPE COD - "Bridge Street, Chatham" 8x10 on Canvas Board


This was another great location in Chatham. One of the fondest memories I have from this location is talking to some of the wonderful residents from the area. So many people stopped with such kind things to say, very friendly people out enjoying a walk on such a gorgeous day. It was actually quite overcast and cool when we arrived, by the time we wrapped it up the jacket was over the back of the easel.

This is a tough one to let go. I love this painting. Maybe I will go back and finish it some day. The sky, the trees, the water, however I'm not crazy about the grass. I don't feel I've been able to accurately paint marsh grass yet. I really need help with it.



DAY 2 Chatham, CAPE COD - "Untitled" 8x10 on Gesso Board


This was a location that we could have painted at all weekend. An amazing place! Beautiful marshes, boats, GIANT horse shoe crabs...a stunning location! This is a place I could visit every day and just reflect. Probably the least windy days also. Robin did a great demo here which was a very helpful way to start the trip. I remember the excitement I felt...the nerves...adrenaline...a lot of emotion.

As for the painting...originally I loved it. The more I look at it, the more I find things I'm not crazy about. I REALLY struggled with perspective this week. I don't feel I captured the depth at all. I don't like my trees, I don't like the values, I think the sky holes are awful. I don't like the water, I hate the marsh grass....the thing I DO LOVE is the sky and the clouds. Those are most important...I spent so long struggling with clouds. As long as I have those right, I'm good to go.




So this concludes my wrap up of the Cape. An amazing weekend. One of the best weekends of my life. Robin worked so hard to make sure we had an amazing weekend and we all did thanks to her. As I said before it was a very important weekend for me...a very special weekend for me. A weekend I will never forget. Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed my post.

Chatham, Cap Cod Final Post

Here's some more images from my trip to Cape Cod. I've decided to make this my last Chatham post. Enjoy.

Chatham, Cap Cod part 1

As I stated in an earlier post, I was going to post some pictures from my weekend in Chatham, Ma during Robin's amazing plein air workshop back in October.

I can't begin to tell you what this weekend meant to me personally for a lot of different reasons. A lot of them I won't get into, but It was my first time back to cape cod since I was a child. It was very emotional and brought back a lot of memories.

I have over one thousand photos, so for obvious reasons I can not get into everything, but I just want to share a few pictures I shot during the trip. I have some paintings I photographed that I will post in a bit.

We arrived on Friday, but on Saturday morning we woke up around 5:30am and went out to observe the sunrise before we embarked on our first painting location for the weekend.


The unforgettable orange glow from the sunrise is something that will live with me for the rest of my life. I will never forget this morning.


The sunrise itself was not the most spectacular, however as I said the glow was something to behold....


Amazing clouds...


just look at the color in the sand...

Stay tuned...I'll post some more pics tomorrow highlighting our first painting location and my work...hopefully you'll approve.

Enjoy!

"Winter Glow" 4x4 Pastel

Here's a quick little pastel I did. I figure if I keep painting snow scenes, eventually flakes will fall.

This is another painting of the Goldthwaite trial. I have enough material to create 50 paintings from the same location. I actually painted this because I have a really nice frame I wanted to put it in. I have recently started organizing my studio to make it a more conducive painting environment. I've added lighting and organized my material so I can reach my materials a bit easier. This was sort of a test, I guess.

As for the painting, this was challenging. I always find it hard to work on such a small board. I love the warm glow on the snow and the depth and variety of the trees. I'm really falling in love with painting trees. I love being able to show the form and texture of the bark....add a little touch of snow and it adds to their beauty. Enjoy.

The Importance of Art and Marketing...

Recently I sold a painting and I'd like to share the story with you that is proof marketing works. Especially in the world of fine art.

For the 15th Annual Open studio tour, Robin allowed me to show my work during the weekend. I created an ecard advertising myself and the other students' work for the weekend. I sent the card to someone I work with who attended the show. She loved the work, had a great time and raved about the evening. She commented about my work to another person I work with who requested to see my blog ( I'm almost done designing my own web site) . I gave her the address and she purchased a recent painting I completed and posted on my blog.

Here we have the distribution of the ecard, word of mouth and the updated web site. Without marketing I would NEVER have sold the painting. Taking the extra time to create and distribute the card, forwarding my blog address and even the importance of updating it with recent paintings. Again, I created the card and the blog is free...these things are VERY important for a starving artist!!!

I owe it all to Robin. I've sold two paintings in my short career, both thanks her for allowing me to show at the Open Studio Tour.